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THE risTION, 



THE CONSTITUTION, 



AND 



SLAYEEY. 



FROM 

FOR JANUARY, 1864. 



NEW YORK. 

37 BIBLE HOUSE, ASTOR PLACE. 

1864. 



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W§t ffaimt, \\t §m%\%M\m) a ttit glateg* 



(1.) The papers of James Madison, purchased by order of 
Congress, &c., &c. Three Volumes. Washington: Lang- 
tree & O'Sullivan. 1840. 

(2.) Annals of Congress. Second Session, Sixteenth Con- 
gress. 1820-1. 

(3.) Curtis' s History of the Constitution of the United States. 
Two Volumes. New York : Harper & Brothers. 1854. 

The struggle in which this nation is engaged has already 
reached that stage in its progress when words of counsel may 
be offered, when principles may be discussed, when, if any man 
can throw light upon the questions at issue, or say or do 
aught to assuage the bitterness of feeling, and become the in- 
strument of Peace, he is bound not to keep silent. For almost 
three years, the fierce passions, the mighty energies, the vast 
resources of the entire country, North and South, have been 
called into full play ; at what terrible cost, it is too soon yet 
to estimate. We do not suppose that the War is yet at an 
end ; but we do believe that Eeason is beginning to resume 
her throne. Men are beginning to ask, w T hen is this awful sac- 
rifice of the young best life of the country to cease ? What 
are the ends, for which the War is to be protracted ? What 
are the difficulties, in the way of securing those ends ? In re- 
sponding to these inquiries, in the present Article, we shall 
write w T ith entire frankness ; and while we utter only our own 
individual convictions, we shall do it in complete independence 
of all political parties, and, as far as may be, of all sectional 
prejudices. 

We express then, first of all, our full and confirmed belief, 
that a permanent separation of this Nation is an utter impos- 
sibility. The reasons for this belief, we have no space to give 
in detail. We waive here, altogether, the question of the 



/J(& 



right of Secession. We aver that the American people were 
designed, by the Creator, to be one Nation, and not many Na- 
tions. Geographically and commercially we must be one. 
Our great Bivers bind together the great West and North 
West with the South West, indissolubly, and they will bind 
them, together as long as those waters run. The Mississippi 
Biver, from its source to the Q-ulf of Mexico, can never wash 
the soil of two nations ; it must belong to one great and united 
people. The mighty domain which was purchased by Napole- 
on, two generations ago, at a great price, and as a great national 
necessity, will not, cannot now be abandoned, by the numerous 
population of the great and growing States which are planted 
upon its numerous and mighty tributaries. Commercially, and 
socially, as well as by vast internal means of communication, 
the Northwest and the Southwest are linked to the Atlantic 
States by just as firm a bond. Differences of climate and pro- 
ductions, and natural resources, so far from separating such a 
people, are, or may be, the very elements and conditions of 
union. The North, and the West, and the South, are mutually 
made for, and dependent upon each other. An endless border 
warfare, ruin, utter and remediless, awaits their separation ; 
and this is to be one of the lessons of this unnatural and ter- 
rible War. They have flourished together so long and so glo- 
riously, that they had become each proud, self-consequential 
envious, jealous of the other. Alienated from each other tem- 
porarily such a people may be, yet the bonds which unite and 
bind them together are natural, and will be permanent. What 
events are concealed in the future, ere this will be the solution 
of our difficulties, G-od only knows ; but one united Nation, 
sooner or later, we must and shall become. That Grocl, in His 
wrath, has given up this nation to ruin, and that in that catas- 
trophe He will permit so many and such hopes to be forever 
blasted, we cannot yet bring ourselves to believe. 

Neither is Slavery the alone cause, or even the principal 
cause of the War. It is the occasion of it, and it will be and 
is the great difficulty in the way of a return to Peace. The 
cause of the War, the primary cause, lying back of and giving 
shape and direction to all other causes, is the Sins of the Na- 



tion. It is the want of Public and Private Virtue. It is the 
corruptions, the bribery, the peculations, the fraud, notoriously 
and shamelessly practiced in high places. It is the alarming 
extent to which the National Government has trampled upon 
the sanctions of the Divine Law, holding its Sessions of Con- 
gress on God's Holy Day, admitting to its Council Chambers 
men steeped in the heathenish abominations and brutalities of 
Mormonism. It is the rapid spread of theoretical and practi- 
cal Infidelity among the masses of the people, the trampling 
under foot of God's Eevelation, the rejection of the old Christ- 
ian Creeds and Articles of Faith, by those once deemed ortho- 
dox, and, as a consequence, the undermining of the public 
conscience. Washington said, in his Farewell Address, " rea- 
son and experience both forbid us to expect that National Mo- 
rality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles. " And 
yet, Eeligious Principles have lost and are losing their hold on 
the belief, and conscience, and policy of the Nation. It is the 
frightful list of crimes against Morality ; the judicial tram- 
pling upon the sacredness of Marriage, that great Conservator 
of Social Virtue, and the direct sanction thus given to hea- 
thenish lust and licentiousness.* It is ihe growing disregard 
of the Christian Sabbath, and with it, the destruction of the 
great bulwark of every Moral and Christian Virtue. It is the 
disobedience to parents, the intemperance, the profanity, the 
crimes against life and property and reputation, against which 
the Civil Law is becoming more and more powerless. Here, in 
this long but incomplete catalogue, is the real cause of the 
War. In the history of the world, such a Nation, under the 
Providence of God, never has prospered. Servants to sin, un- 
willing to govern themselves, men have become incapable of 
governing others ; and so have yielded themselves the slaves 
of despotic power in some form. Such a process, in the econ- 
omy of Nations, is both a philosophical necessity, and the 
Law of God's dealings with His children. It always has been 

* As one instance among a thousand ; while we write, we notice the following 
paragraph:' — 

Divorce Cases. — There are one hundred and seventy-four divorce cases on the 
docket of the Supreme Court in Suffolk county, Mass. 



so, and always will be, until the end of time. Hence, if we 
would be peace-makers, and on the only durable or possible 
basis, we must humble ourselves before God ; we must repent 
of our sins ; we must come back to those " Religious Princi- 
ples/' as Washington called them, the sanctions of the Divine 
Law, and the immutable verities of the Christian Faith, on 
which alone National virtue, prosperity and glory can ever de- 
pend. 

Although we have named the primary cause of the War, 
there were secondary, and more immediate causes, the potency 
of which will vary, in the estimation of different persons. 
Among these, are the hereditary antipathies of Cavalier and 
Eoundhead, begotten in the stormy period of English history, 
and never yet forgotten. There is the old notion, which still 
clings to the degenerate Puritan, that as "the elect of God" 
and peculiar favorite of Heaven, it is his special mission, not 
less than that of the Ultra-Montanist, (and the two Systems 
have more points of correspondence than is sometimes sup- 
posed,) to wield "the two swords/' Civil and Ecclesiastical- 
It was this notion which possessed the fiery zealot, Oliver 
Cromwell ; who, in the name of Liberty and Philanthropy, 
perpetrated fearful tyrannies and atrocities ; in the name of a 
truer Civilization, was guilty of the most shameful barbari- 
ties ; and in the name of Religion, went to such an extreme of 
impiety, that, as Bishop Kennet says, " Heresies and Blas- 
phemies against Heaven were swelled up to a most prodigious 
height." * Macaulay, who cannot be charged with partiality for 
the Church, says, speaking of the Puritan dynasty : — 

"Another government arose, which, like the former, considered religion as its 
surest basis, and- the religious disipline of the people its first duty. Sanguinary 
laws were enacted against libertinism; profane pictures were burned; drapery was 
put on indecorous statues; the theatres were shut up; fast days were numerous; 
and the Parliament resolved, that no person should be admitted to any public em- 
ployment, unless the House should be satisfied of his vital godliness. We know 
what was the end of this training. We know that it ended in impiety, in filthy 
and heartless sensuality ; in the dissolution of all ties of honor and morality. We 
know that, at this very day, scriptural phrases, scriptural names, perhaps some 

* Complete Hist. Vol. 3, p. 261. See also Edwards's Gangrcena, Book I. Part 3 r 
p. 75; and Grey's Reply to Neal, Vol. IV. pp. 58-65; 91-5. 



scriptural doctrines, excite disgust and ridicule, solely because they are associated 
with the austerity of that period. The training of the High Church ended in the 
reign of the Puritans, and the training of the Puritans, in the reign of the harlots."* 

England, having tried Political Puritanism for twenty years, 
during half of which time the System had full play, was glad 
to restore to the throne that miserable specimen of humanity, 
the reckless, sensual, hypocritical Charles II. ; and she has 
never cared to repeat the experiment. When men find, in 
their own wicked hearts, a " Law" higher than the Law of 
God, they will not hesitate to justify, by such a " Law/' any 
and every act to which the propensities of the heart lead them. 
History has no darker page than the long list of deeds of bru- 
tal lust and savage barbarity, which have been perpetrated in 
the name of Eeligion.f This innate idea of a " mission/' in- 
wrought into the very framework and texture of the Puritan, 
makes him, of necessity, whatever his character, a professional 
"reformer ;" this is his vocation ; in other words, he becomes a 
meddler in other people's business. Horace Greeley, himself a 
New Englander by birth, and a fair type of the modern the- 
ory, has expressed this Puritan idea exactly. It is not original 
with him ; it is one of Louis Napoleon's maxims, but Greeley 
endorses it. "March at the head of the ideas of your age, 
and then these ideas will follow and support you/' Here, in 
a nutshell, is the secret of the demagogism of the modern 
Puritan Pulpit.J 

* Macaulatfs Miscellanies, Yol. I. p. 312, 3 J 3. 

I When a Clergyman, at the late Andover Commencement, said, "Give me the 
infidelity of Theodore Parker, rather than the orthodoxy of the New York Ob- 
server," he reminds us of the "Wallingford Community,-' in Conn., founded by a 
preacher of the same School ; and .of the exhibitions of human depravity in Crom- 
well's time, by "Higher Law" men and women. — See Gray's Reply to Neal, Yol. 
IV. pp. 59-69. 

J In the early settlement of the New Haven Colony, after enacting that "none 
shall be admitted to be free Burgesses in any of the Plantations within this juris- 
diction, for the future, but such Planters as are members of some or other of the 
approved Churches in New England," and that "the Court shall, with all care and 
diligence, provide for the maintenance of the purity of Religion, and suppress the con- 
tray ;" it was enacted, in April, 1644, "that the Judicial Laws of God, as they 
were delivered by Moses * * * shall be a rule to all the Courts in this Jurisdic- 
tion." The historian says: "Thus it appears that the only code recognized in the 



/3? 



Amond the secondary causes of the War, must be mentioned 
the different habits and customs which grow naturally out of 
the different Systems of Free and Slave labor, antagonistic in 
one consolidated Government, yet reconcilable and capable of 
harmonious adjustment in a Eepublic. There are the bad ex- 
ponents of Northern and Southern character, who have carried 
into both sections false impressions, and who have awakened 
mutual dislike and hatred. There is a strong sectional ambi- 
tion and jealousy, which has fully determined to destroy a 
union under which both North and South have mutually flour- 
ished. There is, at the South, a feeling of mortified pride, and 
more or less apprehension, at seeing the monopoly of place and 
power rapidly and surely pass out of its control.'* And there 

Jurisdiction at this time, was the Mosaic Law, which very well coincided with their 
notion, thafc all Government should be in the Church, inasmuch as "the saints 
should rule the earth." — Lambert } s History of the Colony of New Haven, pp. 23, 24. 38. 

It is publicly reported that one of these "reformers" declared, not long since, that 
when they had got rid of Slavery, there were two other great evils to be assailed ; 
one of them the Roman Catholic, and the other, the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

* Alexander H. Stevens, of Georgia now Yice President of the Southern Con- 
federacy, said, in a speech at the Georgia Convention on Secession, (Jan. 16, 1861;) 
"What have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the general 
government. We have always had the control of it, and can yet. if we remain in 
it, and are united as we have been. We have had a majority of Presidents 
chosen from the South, as well as the control and management of most of those 
chosen from the North. We have had sixty years of Southern Presidents to their 
twenty-four, thus controlling the Executive department. So of the Judges of the 
Supreme Court — we have had eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the 
North ; although nearly four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the free 
States, yet a majority of the Court has always been from the South. 

"This we have required, so as to guard against any interpretation of the Consti- 
tution unfavorable to us. In like manner, we have been equally watchful to guard 
our interests in the legislative branch of the Government. In choosing the Pre- 
siding Presidents (pro tern.) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to their eleven. 
Speakers of the House, we have had twenty-three and they twelve. While the 
majority of the Represenatives, from their greater population, have always been 
from the North, yet we have so generally secured the Speaker, because he, to a 
great extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country. Nor have we had 
less control in every other department of the General Government. Attorney 
Generals, we have had fourteen, while the North have had but five. Foreign minis- 
ters, we have had eighty-six, and they fifty-four. While three-fourths of the bu- 
siness which demands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the free States, 
from the greater commercial interests, yet we have had the principal embassies, 



8 

has been, also, at the South, a full determination no longer to 
build up the manufacturing and commercial greatness of the 
North, but to secure these elements of national strength for 
itself. 

Among these more immediate causes of the War, we men- 
tion, last of all, and worst of all, the influence of a class of Dis- 
unionists in both sections of the country, North and South. 
At the South, they were open Secessionists ; and the interests 
of Slavery was the weapon with which they now played upon 
the passions and aroused the strong feelings of the people. 
At the North, this class of men has embraced various and most 
divers characters, fanatics, infidels, and philanthropists ; yet 
all, out-and-out, Anti-Constitutionalists. Unfortunately, too, 
although the number of really leading characters among the 
avowed Disunionists in both sections was insignificant, and 
might almost have been counted on one's fingers, yet there 
were among them some men of real power and influence over 
the masses. They may have been honest in their convictions, 
but they were wholly mistaken and terribly mischievous. 
These, more than all other immediate causes, were the fire- 
brands which set the country ablaze ; and these men, still 
playing into each other's hands, are now the great obstacle to 
a return to peace. 

Slavery, as we have said, is not the alone or principal cause 
of this War. There was more Slavery in the country, com- 
paratively, at the adoption of the Constitution, than there is 
now, or ever will be again. But Slavery was the occasion of 
the War, and it will form the great subject of debate, of agi- 

so as to secure the world's markets for our cotton, tobacco and sugar, on the best 
possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the higher offices of both army 
and navy while a larger proportion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn from the 
North. Equally so of clerks, auditors and comptrollers filling the Executive de- 
partment, the record shows, for the last fifty years, that of the three thousand thus 
emloyed, we have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one- 
third of the white population of the Republic. Agaiu, look at another item, and 
one, be assured, in which we have a great and vital interest ; it is that of revenue, 
or means of supporting Government. From official documents we learn that a 
fraction over three-fourths of the revenue collected for support of government has 
uniformily been raised from the North." 



/3f 



tation, and of difficulty, in the final settlement of our troubles. 
For more than thirty years an antagonistic sentiment has been 
growing up, both at the North and the South, on the subject 
of Slavery, which was sure in the end, sooner or later, to con- 
vulse the whole country ; because it was a sentiment directly 
at war with the letter and spirit of the Constitution. 

At the North, Acts of State Legislatures had been passed, 
calculated to render inoperative that clause of the Constitu- 
tion which requires the rendition of fugitive slaves ; al- 
though, we are glad to say, the most obnoxious of these had 
been repealed. Ecclesiastical bodies have enacted disiplinary 
regulations on the subject of Slavery ; such as would render 
cordial communion and fellowship with Christians at the 
South an utter impossibility. So intense has this feeling be- 
come, that there is a party at the North, strong and deter- 
mined, which has taken the ground that the War ought not to 
end, and never shall end, until Slavery in all the States is ut- 
terly exterminated ; at all events, that the old Union of Free 
and Slave States shall never be re-adjusted on the basis of the 
old Constitution. We shall not cite \h^ formal action, the 
Eesolutions, &c, of various religious bodies in the North, and 
especially in New England, showing that they have endorsed 
and are sustaining this War directly on the ground, not that 
it is a War for the Constitution, but a War against Slavery. 
The American " Anti-Slavery Society/' which held its Anni- 
versary in the " Church of the Puritans/' on the 12th of May 
| last, adopted, " with loud applause/' among others, the fol- 
lowing Eesolutions : — 

Resolved, That while the Society has rendered this verdict with the deepest em- 
phasis, The Constitution a Covenant with Hell, it has not failed to remind the 
people of the North that, ever since the adoption of the Constitution of the United 
States, "their feet have run to evil, and they have made haste to shed innocent 
blood," in the way of slaveholding complicty ; that, by consenting to a slave rep- 
resentation in Congress, to the arrest and rendition of fugitive slaves on their own 
soil, and to the suppression of slave insurrections by the iron hand of the General 
Government, they have made " a covenant with death, and with hell have they been at 
agreement,'' till, at last, "judgment is laid to the line, and righteousness to the plum- 
met," and the hail sweeps away the refuge of lies, the waters overflow the hiding 
place, the covenant with death is annulled, and the agreement with hell no longer 
stands. 



10 

Constitution must Xever be Renewed. 

Resolved, That being thus delivered from that guilty relation — alas ! not by re- 
pentance or reformation on their part, but by the insane rebellion of those with 
whom they have hitherto struck hands — the ' ' traffickers in slaves and the souls of 
men" — jglpiT must never be renewed, come what may; but the Federal Gov- 
ernment must henceforth be over all, and for all, and under the national flag every 
human being in the land must rind freedom and protection, anything in any State 
Constitution or State laws, to the contrary notwithstanding. 

On the platform of that Meeting, speaking and voting for 
these Besolutions, with other of the most radical men of the 
country, infidels and nominal Christians, was a Mr. Theodore 
Tilton, Editor of the Independent (Newspaper,) a paper to 
which Eev. Stephen H. Tyng, D. D. ! and Horace Greeley, are 
regular contributors ; a paper which, since the breaking to 
pieces of the old Puritan Platforms, has become, together with 
Greeley's Tribune, the practical religious exponent and au- 
thority of a large portion of New England. We know, from 
the most reliable sources of information, that these Eesolu- 
tions embody the opinions, and express the fixed determination 
of many who yet would not care to be seen in such a place as 
the " Church of the Puritans/' The Constitutional oaths of 
these persons, and the awful sin of perjury which the adop- 
tion of such Eesolutions necessarily involves, seem to have 
lost their impression upon those who have " become a law unto 
themselves/' * 

* The infidel philosophy of Horace G-reeley, though not so silver-toned as that of 
"Wendell Phillips, is more taking with the people. 

To show the animus of the Tribune, and of the party which it represents, we re- 
print, as a matter of history, the following lines, which, first appeared in the Tribune, 
on the old Flag: — 

The Stars and Stripes. 

All hail the flaunting Lie ! 
The stars grow pale and dim ; 
The stripes are bloody scars — 
A lie the vaunting hymn. 
It shields a pirate's deck, 
It binds a man in chains, 
It yokes a captive's neck, 
And wipes the bloody stains. 

Tear down the flaunting Lie ! 
Half-mast the starry flag! 



11 

All this on one hand. On the other, extreme men at 
the South have taken ground not known or recognized by the 
Fathers of this Kepublic, and as directly opposed to the Con- 
stitution as that occupied by the most rabid Abolitionists. 
Not protection, but aggression, has been their watchword. 
They have claimed Slavery to be, not a State, or Municipal, 
but a national Institution ; and have demanded for it the pro- 
tection of the National Flag, every where in the United 
States ; and have insisted that they may go as permanent oc- 
cupants, and carry Slavery with them into any and all the Ter- 
ritories of the country, hithertofore declared free. They have 
taken steps for the re-opening of the Slave Trade ; and, within 
a few years, slaves in considerable numbers have been imported 
directy into the South, from the coast of Africa. * 

Insult no sunny sky 
With hate's polluted rag ! 
Destroy it ye who can ! 
Deep sink it in the waves ! 
It bears a fellow man 
To groan with fellow slaves. 

Furl, furl the boasted Lie, 

Till freedom lives again 

To rule once more in truth 

Among untrammeled men. 

Roll up the starry sheen, 

Conceal its bloody stains, 

For in its folds are seen 

The stamp of rustling chains. 
The Rev. Dr. Massy, of London, of the English Abolition Clerical Delegation to 
this country, is reported to have said, at a Farewell Meeting, at the New York Tab- 
ernacle, September 27, 1863: — 

; 'He next spoke of his impressions, derived from his intercourse with the 
religionists of every sect throughout the United States. He found no vindictive 
feeling whatever amongst any against the South; but the universal feeling was , 
that the South should not be re-admitted to the Union till slavery was abolished 
throughout her borders. The revolted States must come back as subjects, not as ru- 
lers; they must not only give up rebellion, but they must give up slavery also 
Applause " 

*In the Senate of South Carolina, the Hon. 0. M. Dantzler offered the following 
Resolutions, December 10, 1859, and supported them in an elaborate argument, 
which is now before us : — 

Resolved, That the Southern States shall be, of right, supreme upon the ques- 
tions which affect the fortunes of Domestic Slavery. 



12 

As a natural fruit of this Northern and Southern sentiment, 
feelings of alienation and bitterness have grown up between 
the people of the two sections. On th§ one hand, the evils and 
abuses incident to Slavery, such as the violent separation of 
families, the disregard of the Marriage relation, the gross 
licentiousness, &c, &c, have been persistently spread before 
the people of the North, while other and more redeeming facts 
and features have been as studiously withheld. * 

Resolved, That the measures of the General Government, restrictive of the For- 
eign Slave Trade, are in derogation of this right, and ought to be repealed. 

The Richmond Enquirer, (Ya.) in an editorial, said: — k 'The Convention with 
Great Britain was a triumph of English Abolitionism over the good natured stu- 
pidity of the American Government. At the foundation of the Treaty lies the 
principle that negro slavery is an iniquity and an outrage against human and Di- 
vine law. If slavery be morally right and a social benefit, then there can be no 
impropriety, much less guilt, in extending it. The Convention with Great Britian, 
while it has failed to accomplish its object, infinitely aggravates the sufferings of 
the negro, and prevents the supply of African labor from keeping pace with the 
growing demands of an agriculture which is essential to the wants of civilization. 
For these reasons we say, Abrogate the Convention. 

But the demands of civilization are not evaded with impunity. The world must 
have a supply of tropical prodMctions, and there can be no tropical production without 
compulsory labor. The obstructions thrown in the way of the African Slave Trade 
have not arrested the traffic, but they have reduced it until it is altogether inade- 
quate to the wants of mankind.' 1 '' 

* From a communication in a late English paper, we take the following grouping 
of facts: — 

11 1 take the Episcopal Church, and I open the diocesan returns of the General 
Convention held (at Richmond) in 1859, the last before the Secession. Written, as 
they are, by Southern voluntaryists, for the perusal of those who pay, they are 
conclusive. In Alabama, 'increasing attention is given to the religious instruction 
of the blacks. 7 In Mississippi, 'on every hand is observed the increasing desire on 
the part of masters to give unto their servants the blessings of the Gospel and the 
Church.' North Carolina honestly owns that 'the religious instruction of the 
slaves has been followed up, it is hoped, with increased diligence and success ; but 
it must be acknowledged that the diocese is still far below the standard of duty ir* 
this important work.' But in South Carolina, 'about fifty chapels for the benefit of 
negroes on plantations, are now in use for the worship of God and the religious in- 
structions of slaves. Many planters employ missionaries or catechists for this pur- 
pose ; many more would do so if it were possible to procure them. Some of the 
present candidates for holy orders are looking forward to this special work.' One 
parish has 'thirteen chapels for negroes, supplied with regular services. The num- 
ber of negroes, attending the services of the Church in this diocese cannot be 
shown by statistics; it is very large and increasing annually.' Nay, there is a 
mission, chiefly for the benefit of the slaves in Charleston; and among the 1,942 



13 

Not infrequently, too, visitors from trie South, specimens of 
wealthy vulgarity, in no sense representing the respectability 
and refinement of that legion, have exhibited at the North an 

confirmed during the trienniad, 1,211 were colored; of the 4,775 baptized, 3,55*7 
colored; of the 667 married. 374 colored; and of the 5,672 communicants, 2,819 
colored. 

'The time has come,' say the Confederate Bishops in their pastoral of 1862, 
1 when the Church should press more urgently than she has hitherto done upon the 
laity, the solemn fact that the slaves of the South are not merely so much property, 
but are a sacred trust committed to us as a people, to be prepared for the work 
which God may have for them to do in future. * * * The Church must 
offer more freely her ministrations for their benefit and improvement.' The teach- 
ings of the Church are those which best suit a people passing ' from ignorance to 
civilization,' owing to its 'objective worship;' 'bald spiritualism' too often leading 
1 to crime and licentiousness.' 

Such are the opinions of the Southern Episcopalians. But the unestablished 
Episcopal Church is all through the States emphatically a gauge of educated pub- 
lic opinion. The other bodies of Christians, Protestant and Roman Catholic, have 
each their tale to tell of missionary work among the blacks, aided and encouraged 
by the masters. Mr. Jones has called attention to an ' address to Christians 
throughout the world, by the clergy of the Confederate States.' It is essentially a 
non-episcopalian Protestant document, and out of its ninety-eight signatures there 
are only four clergymen of our Church. But it is remarkably confirmatory of the 
pastoral. Both agree in repudiating 'abolitionism,' and no great wonder, consid" 
ing what Boston means by that word, and how the South regards Boston's mean- 
ing. Yet it says, ' While the State should seek by wholesome legislation to regard 
the interests of master and slave, we, as ministers, would preach the Word to both, 
as we are commanded of God;' and the notes state that the 'total number of com- 
municants ' (?". e., of regular marked down attendants at specific places of worship) 
in the Christian Churches, in the Confederate States, is about two millions and 
fifty thousand,' of whom the blacks come in for 'five hundred thousand,' or one- 
fourth of the ' adult population ' of negroes. I have neither means nor desire to 
prove or disprove these figures ; they refute the discouragement of religion among 
the blacks, else these ninety-eight voluntarist ministers would not have dared to 
publish them. 

***** ^ e rea a j n the pastoral of the Southern Bishops — ' It is like- 
wise the duty of the Church to press upon the masters of the country their obliga- 
tion, as Christian men, so to arrange this institution as not to necessitate the viola- 
tion of those sacred relations which God has created, and which man cannot, con- 
sistently with Christian duty, annul' — namely, those of parent and child, and of 
husband and wife. The next sentence is still bolder, where it talks of these 'un- 
christian features!' adding that 'a very little care upon our part, would 4 rid the 
system' of them. Let Mr. Hole note what follows — ' we rejoice to be enabled to 
say that the public sentiment is rapidly becoming sound upon this subject, and that 
the Legislatures of several of the Cor/federate States have already taken steps towards 
their consummation.' " 



14 

insolent bearing, which has only intestified the bitterness of 
sectional hatred. So, too, at the South, the working classes of 
the North, — and almost every man of power and influence here 
is in some sense a working man, — have been stigmatized by low 
and opprobrious epithets, and the immoralities and vices of 
our large cities. have been charged upon the whole population 
of the North, inflaming the Southern mind with prejudice and 
dislike, These, and such as these, have been the weapons 
which political agitators on both sides have used with but too 
much success, This war, among its other results, will, before 
it is ended, bring the North and the South to a better under- 
standing with each other. It will teach the South, that there 
is a chivalry, courage, and dignity of character at the North, 
which is not to be trifled with. It will teach the North, that 
there is a Christian conscience, a high-toned moral culture at 
the South, which is to be respected and loved, and which may 
safely be entrusted with its own duties ; which, at least, will 
not permit an officious and mischievous intermeddling. 

Such were the causes, remote and immediate, of the War ; 
and such was the occasion of it. As for the War itself, the 
South has cause for irritation ; possibly, for more or less of 
apprehension ; but none for that last dreadful resort, War. 
Even the nomination and election of a sectional Presidential 
candidate, did not, in the slightest degree, justify such an ap- 
peal, so long as the General Government made no infringement 
on the Constitutional rights of the South ; and this has never 
been pretended. We say here publicly, what we said private- 
ly every where at the South, in the Winter of 1859-60, at 
Charleston, and Augusta, and Montgomery, and Mobile, and 
New Orleans, that the great mass of the Northern people were, 
and would be, true to every Constitutional pledge ; but that 
they would never consent to see the Constitution sacrificed. 
We saw then that the South under-estimated the spirit, 
courage, and determination of the North. 

We say further, that the North has not, at certain great 
crises, been sufficiently careful to guard itself against misap- 
prehension ; and we instance the famous " Peace Convention" 
of February, 1861. Mr. Lincoln had just been elected by a 



15 

minority vote, and by the aid of the ultra- Abolitionists.*"" At 
the South, it was charged, and extensively and really believed, 
that it was the purpose of the party now come into power to 
trample upon the Constitution, and make war upon the insti- 
tution of Slavery in the States. At this " Peace Convention/' 
the most important held since the Federal Convention of 1787, 
unfortunately, there were persons present who still carried with 
them that depth of sectional bitter feeling which had been 
exhibited and engendered in the late Presidential campaign. 
Near the close of the sessions, amidst great exasperation, when 
every thing seemed to hang upon the casting of a single die, 
the great issue was brought distinctly to the test. The " Crit- 
tenden Besolutions," which would not have added practically 
to the area of Slave Territory, would, at that crisis, have saved 
the country from War ; and those Eesolutions (substantially) 
would have passed the Convention, but for the sharp manage- 
ment and persistent opposition of a few Northern radical men. 
Mr. Baldwin, of Connecticut, as their leader, made a Beport 
against those Besolutions ;f and they were finally disposed of 
in a way to fill the friends of the Union with the deepest anx- 
iety.J A different policy on the part of that Convention, 
would have secured the great Border States of the South to 
the Union, without whom Secession would have been, compar- 
atlively, harmless. 

There is still another point on which we wish distinctly to 
define our position. We do not touch at all here, much less 
do we discuss, the moral character of Slavery itself. Whether 

* I860. Nov. 6. — The election for President and Yice President was held in all 
the States, and resulted as follows : — 

Total number of votes in Southern States, _ .1,310,907 

in Northern States,... 3,429,075 

Whole number of votes in the Union, 4,739,982 

Yote for Lincoln, _ 1,865,840 

Yote against Lincoln:— Douglas received 1,288,043.— Breckinridge, 836,801. — 
Bell, 742,747.— Total, 2,867,591. Majority in the Union against Lincoln, 1,001,751 
f See debates in the Convention of February 16, 1861. 

\ Mr. Mason, of Yirginia, is said to have at once telegraphed to his friends to 
prepare for the worst, for all hopes of an amicable settlement were lost. 



16 

it be, abstractly considered, as great a wrong as the most ultra 
abolitionist contends ; or, whether it be, as others claim, a 
Scriptural and divine institution, and so defensible on the 
highest and holiest of all considerations, does not, in the 
slightest degree, enter into the argument which we shall pre- 
sent. We observe, however, that they who would defend 
Slavery by the Scriptural argument, seem to have forgotten 
that the Slavery for which they plead, was the Slavery of the 
white or the red race, not of the black ;* and on the other 
hand, we are certain that the immediate forcible emancipation 
of the slaves of the South, without preparation, and without 
provision for their support and protection, would be the great- 
est injury, in every respect, which could be inflicted upon 
them. Slavery, in the Eoman Empire, even of a race or races 
far higher elevated in civilization, did not cease by any such 
process. True Civilization, Emancipation in any valuable 
sense, Eeform of Social Evil of any kind, is a growth, not an 
opus operatum; and must be the fruit of the supernatural, 
Christian element, the only source of recovery from the Moral 
Evil of Nature. This was the theory of Eeform, taught 
by the Saviour and His Apostles ; and it is that which the 
Ministers of the Church, with few exceptions, have so uni- 
formly inculcated. And here we differ, db initio et toto ccelo, 
from the Socinian and Infidel theory of Eeform, which has 
indentified itself with the early Abolition movement in this 
country. We believe in Christianity, and have faith in it. 
We say, adhere to the Constitution religiously, its letter and 
its spirit, and trust to the regenerating, reforming power of 
Christianity to purify, mould and elevate. The Infidel denies 
such a supernatural element now, as he denied it in the old 
French Eevolution. He points to Moral and Social Evils, and 
would exterminate them now as he tried to exterminate them 
then, by violent and physical agencies ; and then he casts re- 
proach upon Christianity, because its disciples and teachers do 
not respond to his methods. It is the most potent weapon 

* We do not regard here the curse denounced upon Canaan, (Gen. ix. 25), be- 
cause it never has been and cannot be proved, that the negroes are descendants of 
Canaan ; although it is a popular opinion, and is usually taken for granted. 



17 

that Infidelity ever used with the masses of the people. We 
are willing to let Christianity bide its time. 

With these preliminary remarks, we come to the great moral 
question involved in this national struggle. That question 
must and will come up in its final settlement, settle it how we 
may. And yet there are certain fundamental facts entering 
into the very basis of this whole subject — facts which the Eng- 
lish people, and especially English Christians, seem utterly 
unable to grasp — facts which, for some reason, are ignored by, 
$nd are losing their hold upon multitudes of conscientious 
people at the North, to which we invite attention. Our prop- 
osition is, that in the light of history, and of God's Provi- 
dence, Slavery in the States need not, and ought not to be, an 
obstacle to the peaceable, speedy, and permanent settlement 
of our national troubles, and to return to a Union of all the 
States under one Government. We do not discuss here the 
political status of the Seceded States, when the question of 
Peace shall come up. We do, however, bear witness to the 
revolutionary character of the position which extreme men of 
the North are taking upon this point ; aiming as it does at the 
annihilation of State Governments, and at the subversion of 
the foundations, and the destruction of the frame-work of our 
National Government. * If these men succeed in what seems 

* No where has the doctrine of State Sovereignty been more strenuously main- 
tained than in New England, when its sectional interests were imperiled. A Re- 
port of the General Assembly of Connecticut, made August 25th, 1812, said: — 

" But it must not be forgotten that the State of Connecticut is a free, sovereign 
and independent State; that the United States are a Confederacy of States; that we 
are a Confederated, and not a Consolidated Republic. The Governor of this State 
is under a high and solemn obligation ' to maintain the lawful rights and privileges 
thereof as a Sovereign, Free and Independent State,'' as he is ' to support the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, 1 and the obligation to support the latter, imposes an addi- 
tional obligation to support the former." 

The Report of the Hartford Convention of January, 1815, was still more vehe- 
ment. It said: — 

" The power of compelling the militia and other citizens of the United States, by 
a forcible draft or conscription, to serve in the regular armies, as proposed in a late 
official letter of the Secretary of War, is not delegated to Congress by the Consti- 
tution, and the exercise of it would be not less dangerous to their liberties than 
hostile to the Sovereignty of the States. * * * * In 

this whole series of devices and measures for raising men, this Convention discern 

2* 



18 

to "be a fixed determination, we are indeed in the midst of a 
Revolution, and of changes in the very structure of our Gov- 
ernment, greater, we venture to believe, than they themselves 
now dream, and with some consequences which they do not 
now foresee. 

It must never be forgotten, — and we reach now a fact, which 
lies at the very foundation of what we have to say, — that the 
original Thirteen Colonies had, and always had, the right to 
manage their own Domestic Institutions in their own way ; 
that this right they have never surrendered, except in certain 
specified cases ; that this right they still possess ; that Domes- 
tic Slavery is one of these Institutions ; that the General Gov- 
ernment, the Free State Governments, and the people of these 
States, have no legal right to interfere with this Domestic In- 
stitution, where it exists. We shall show, before we are done, 
that if interference is called for, the Northern States are the 
very last parties to engage in it. The personal responsibility 
of the people of the Northern States for the Domestic Insti- 
tutions of the Southern States, can never be claimed on any 
theory which does not render not only all social compacts, but 
even social and commercial intercourse, in a world like this, 
an utter impossibility. As well, and far better, hold British 
Christians responsible for the Governmental endowment of 
Idolatry in India, the opium smuggling in China, and the 
raising of sugar crops in Cuba. We take for granted here, 
that the Government of the United States is a Government of 
limited, delegated powers ; and yet clothed with full authority 
to render that Government effective within its specified sphere. 
Here lies the difference between the Government under the 
present Constitution, and the Government under the Articles 
of Confederation. And yet, it is a fundamental principle in 
our Government, that, in the language of Article X, (of the 
Articles in addition to and amendment of the Constitution of 



a total disregard for the Constitution, and a disposition to violate its provisions, 
demanding from the individual States a firm and decided opposition. An iron des- 
potism can impose no harder servitude upon the citizen than to force him from his 
home and his occupation, to wage offensive wars, undertaken to gratify the pride 
or passions of his master." 



the United States, and formally adopted December 15, 1791,)* 
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Con- 
stitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to 
the States respectively, or to the people/' As we have already 
said, the entire control of Slavery in the several States, is one 
of those rights never delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor " prohibited by it to the States ;" and hence, 
"is reserved to the States respectively, or to the people/' 
And hence, with Slavery in the Slave States, neither the Gen- 
eral Government, nor the Free States, nor the people of the 
Free States, have any legal right to interfere. And aside 
from the oath of allegiance to the Constitution, there are rea- 
sons why the people of the Northern States may with propri- 
ety leave the resposibility of American Slavery to their South- 
ern brethren. 

We shall not enter minutely into the history of American 
Slavery in and during the Colonial period. All portions of 
our country participated in it. As early as 1620, the English 
began to introduce Negro Slavery into the Colony of Virginia.f 
In 1637, the Puritans of Massachusetts are found, not only 
selling the Indians into servitude, but buying Negroes as slaves 
for their own use.J Rev. Dr. Belknap, of Boston, Mass, in a 

* These amendments were prepared at the First Congress, March 4, 1789, two- 
thirds of both Houses concurring ; and were ratified by the Legislatures of three- 
fourths of the States, the Legislatures of Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and 
Georgia, refusing to ratify. These amendments, thus early adopted and made* 
binding, were in the nature of a Declaration of Rights, and were expressly framed 
to guard the States against the encroachments of the General Government. 

f Anderson's* History of the Colonial Church, Vol. I. pp. 85-9. 

\ See FeWs History of Salem, p. 167. The Puritans held slaves as early as 1637, 
a few years after the settlement. In 1641, we find the following among the Mas- 
sachusetts laws: — 

" There shall never be any bond slavery, villanage, nor captivity among us. un- 
less it be lawful captives taken in just wars; and such strangers as willingly sell 
themselves, or are sold unto us ; and these shall have all the liberties and Christian 
usages which the law of God, established in Israel, requires." 

In 1698, she passed a law prohibiting purchasing goods of slaves, under suspi- 
cious circumstances. In 1703, she made a law prohibiting masters from emanci- 
pating their slaves, unless they gave security that they should not become town 
paupers. The same year, a statute prohibited any Indian, Negro, or Mulatto ser- 
vant or slave being abroad after nine o'clock at night, unless on errands for their 



20 

letter to Judge Tucker, of Williamsburg, Va., in 1795, ad- 
mits the existence of Negro Slavery in Massachusetts, and that 
the Slave Trade was prosecuted by merchants of Massachusetts. 
He says that "the slaves purchased in Africa, were chiefly 
sold in the West Indies, or in the Southern Colonies ; but 
when these markets were glutted, and the price low, some of 
them were brought hither/' He says, the slaves were most 
numerous in Massachusetts about 1745, and amounted to 
about 1 to 40 of the whites ; and probably numbered about 
4,000 or 5,000.* 

Mr. Samuel Gr. Drake, in his history of Boston, says that 
"many Irish people had been sent to New England/' and sold 
as " slaves or servants/' Also, that " many of the Scotch 
people had been sent, before this, in the same way. Some of 
them had been taken prisoners, at the sanguinary battle of 

masters or owners. In 1705, by another act, slaves were, for certain offences, to be 
sold out of the province. Any Negro or Mulatto, who should strike any of ,the 
English or other Christian nation, was to be severely whipped. Marriages were 
to be allowed between slaves, but I have found no law prohibiting a husband and 
wife from being sold apart. An import duty on Negroes of £4 per head was im- 
posed, but the duty was to be paid back, if the Negro was exported, and i; bona 
fide sold in any other plantation." " And the like advantages of the drawback 
shall be allowed to the purchaser of any Negro sold within the Province." 

In 1707, we find an act punishing free Negroes or Mulattoes, for harboring any 
Negro or Mulatto servant. And in 1718, an act imposed a penalty on every mas- 
ter of a vessel who should carry away any person under age, or bought or hired 
servant, without the master's or parent's consent. All these laws are to be found 
in the old folio volumes of Provincial Statutes. 

The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts prohibited the enlistment of slaves in 
the army ; thus showing that slavery legally existed there in May, 1775. The rea- 
son given is a curious one — that they were contending for the liberties of the Colo- 
nies, and the admission into the army of any others but freemen, would be incon- 
sistent with the principles to be supported, and reflect dishonor on the Colony. — 
Hon. E. R. Potter's Speech in Senate of Rhode Island. March 14, 1863. 

' : In the year 1657, (during the reign of Endicott,) Lawrence Southwick, and Cas- 
sandra, his wife, very aged members of the Church in Salem, Mass.. for offering 
entertainment to two Quakers, were fined and imprisoned. They absented them- 
selves from meeting, and were fined and whipped. A son and daughter of this 
aged, and, according to Puritan standard, pious couple, were also fined for non- 
attendance at meeting ; and not paying this fine, the General Court, by a special 
order, empowered the Treasurer to sell them as slaves to any of the English nation at 
Virginia or Barbadoes." — Lambert's History of Colony at New Haven, p. 187. 

* Mass. His. Collections. Yol. IV. pp. 191—211. 



21 

Dunbar. There arrived in one ship, the 'John and Sara/ 
John Greene, Master, early in the summer of 1652, about 272 
persons. Capt. Greene had orders to deliver them to 
Thomas Kemble, of Charlestown, who was to sell them, and, 
with the proceeds, to take freight for the West Indies." * 

In 1790, when the Constitution had been adopted by the 
Thirteen States, Slavery existed in every one of the Northern 
States, except Massachusetts, where it. had proved unprofita- 
ble ; the climate was too cold, the slaves where a drug, and the 
institution was abolished in 1788. New Hampshire had 158 
slaves ; Rhode Island, 952 ; Connecticut, 2,759 ; New York, 
21,324 ; New Jersey, 11,423 ; Pennsylvania, 3,737 ; and in 
the entire country, there were 682,633 slaves.* 

In 1787, when the Convention of Delegates from the Thir- 
teen States came together to form the Constitution, a variety 
of conflicting interests occupied the attention of the Conven- 
tion. Among these were the basis of representation and tax- 
ation, and the rights and privileges of Trade and Commerce. 
Slavery had ceased to be profitable at the North, and was grad- 
ually dying out. At the extreme South, it gave indications of 
a prolonged existence. " Ten States, embracing four-fifths of 
the American people, earnestly desired the immediate abolition 
of the African Slave Trade, and only three, viz., the two Car- 
olinas and Georgia, desired its continuance. These three 
States, lying in the extreme southern part of the Union, un- 
der a hot climate, and embracing an immense, fertile, unculti- 
vated territory, which could be cultivated, as their people said, 
only by negroes, were unwilling to be deprived of the power to 
import laborers from Africa, and expressed their determination 
not to join the new league, if the power to prohibit the Slave 
Trade should be conferred on the General Government. To 
gratify these States, in the first draft of the Constitution, an 
article was inserted expressly withholding from Congress for- 
ever the power to abolish the Slave Trade. When this article 
came up for discussion in the Convention, delegates from New 
England manifested their willingness to allow the article to 
stand as a part of the Constitution, if the Carolinas and 

* History and Antiquities of Boston. 1855. p. 342. 
f Curtis's History of the Constitution, Vol. II. p. 55. 



22 

Georgia insisted : but Virginia and other Middle States would 
not consent. Governor Randolph even went so far as to say, 
that he would sooner risk the Union than consent to insert in 
the Constitution an article depriving Congress of the power to 
abolish the Slave Trade. The result of the debate was, that 
the article was referred to a large Committee, consisting of one 
member from each State in the Confederacy, to devise, if pos- 
sible, some compromise, some plan, that would satisfy the Car- 
olinas and Georgia on one side, and the determined An ti- Slave- 
Trade feeling of Virginia and the Middle States on the other. 
This Committee reported as a compromise an article investing 
Congress with power to abolish the foreign Slave Trade after 
the year 1800 ; thus allowing the Car olinas and Georgia twelve 
years to import negro laborers from Africa, and allowing the 
other ten States, under the general power of Congress to regu- 
late commerce, to abolish the traffic after that period. The 
Carolinas and Georgia would, doubtless, have been satisfied 
with twelve years, if they could have obtained no more ; but, 
when the article was under discussion, with this limitation, Mr. 
Pinckney, of South Carolina, moved, as an amendment, that 
1800 be struck out and 1808 inserted ; thus allowing twenty 
years instead of twelve for the continuance of the trade. This 
motion was seconded by a member from Massachusetts , and 
when the vote was taken, every New England State present — - 
Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire — with the 
Carolinas, Georgia and Maryland, voted for the amendment, 
while Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware stood 
firm for 1800. New York and Ehode Island were not present. 
"To understand the motive of the delegates from New Eng- 
land in thus voting with the Carolinas and Georgia to extend 
the duration of the African Slave Trade from twelve to twenty 
years, it should be known, that in the same first draft of the 
Constitution, which contained the article withholding from 
Congress forever the power to abolish the Slave Trade, there 
was also an article declaring that ' no Navigation Acts shall 
be passed without the assent of two-thirds of the members 
present in each House.' This article was inserted in the inte- 
rest of all the great Slave States, to prevent New England 



23 

from monopolizing their carrying Trade by Navigation Acts, 
which would impose heavy tonnage duties on foreign ships, and 
exclude them from Southern ports. In this state of things, 
when the New England delegates in the Convention saw that 
the great Slave States were united in opposition to Navigation 
Acts, but were divided in regard to the continuance of the 
Slave Trade — that South Carolina wanted the Slave Trade, 
while Virginia was earnestly opposed to it — they went to South 
Carolina and virtually said : 'you want slaves, and we want a 
Navigation Act. Cease your opposition to a Navigation Act ; 
expunge the article in the Constitution making a vote of two- 
thirds necessary to pass one ; allow a majority of Congress to 
pass a Navigation Act, and we will join you in extending the 
Slave Trade from 1800 to 1808/ This, if Mr. Madison's re- 
port is true, must have been the bargain ; and the facts cer- 
tainly seem to justify him in this view of it ; for, when the re- 
port of the Committee of one from each State, recommending 
that Congress be invested with power to abolish the Slave 
Trade in 1800, came up for discussion, Mr. Pinckney, of South 
Carolina, moved to strike out 1800, and insert 1808. This 
was seconded by a delegate from Massachusetts, and, when the 
question was put, every New England State present voted for 
1808! 

"If this is a true statement, we must admit that New Eng- 
land is responsible, as particeps criminis, for the importation 
of the 39,075 slaves that were landed in the port of Charleston 
in the years 1804, 1805, 1806 and 1807 ; and for the importa- 
tion of all the slaves that were landed from abroad in any part 
of the United States during the eight years from 1800 to 1808, 
be the number 100,000, or more or less than 100,000, We 
must admit this responsibility of the New England States, be- 
cause it is clear that by joining with Virginia, Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey and Delaware, they might have stopped the Afri- 
can Slave Trade in 1800 ; and that they gave their vote for 
permitting its continuance till 1808, for the purpose of secur- 
ing in return a vote of South Carolina, that would give to 
New England ship-owners the carrying trade of the Slave 
States. New England accomplished her object. She secured 



24 

the carrying trade of the Slave States, and the profits of that 
trade have been a great source, if not the great source, of the 
immense capital now invested in her railways, her cotton mills, 
her woolen mills, and all the other branches of her prosperous 
industry/' 

Such was the bargain then made between the North and the 
South on the extension of the Slave Trade. In proof of this, 
we shall quote from Mr. Madison's Eeport of the Debates in 
the Federal Convention for forming the Constitution. Long 
as the extracts are, they will repay perusal, and they are indis- 
pensable to a right understanding of a portion of the National 
Constitution. 

In the Convention, Aug. 21, 1787,— 

Mr. L. Martin, (of Maryland,) proposed to vary Article 7, Section 4, so as to 
allow a prohibition, or tax on, the importation of Slaves.* In the first place, as 
five slaves are to be counted as three freemen, in the apportionment of Represent- 
atives, such a clause would leave an encouragement to this traffic. In the second 
place, slaves weakened one part of the Union, which the other parts were bound 
to protect ; the privilege of importing them was therefore unreasonable. And in 
the third place, it was inconsistent with the principles of the Revolution, and dis- 
honorable to the American character, to have such a feature in the Constitution. 

Mr. Rutledge (of S. C.) did not see how the importation of slaves could be encou- 
raged by this section. He was not apprehensive of insurrections, and would read- 
ily exempt the other States from the obligation to protect the Southern against 
them. Religion and humanity had nothing to do with this question. Interest 
alone is the governing principle with nations. The true question at present is, 
whether the Southern States shall or shall not be parties to the Union. If the 
Northern States consult their interest, they will not oppose the increase of slaves, 
which will increase the commodities of which they will become the carriers. 

Mr. Ellsworth (of Conn.) was for leaving the clause as it stands. Let every 
State import what it pleases. The morality or wisdom of Slavery are considera- 
tions belonging to the States themselves. What enriches a part enriches the whole, 
and the States are the best judges of their particular interest. The old Confedera- 

* Original plan of Constitution as reported, Aug. 6, 1787. 

Art. vii. Sec. 4. No tax or duty shall be laid by the Legislature on articles 
exported from any State, nor on the migration or importation of such persons as 
the several States shall think proper to admit, nor shall such migration or importa- 
tion be prohibited. 

Art vir. Sec. 5. No Capitation Tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the 
census herein before directed to be taken. 

Ar p. vn. Sec. 6. No Navigation Act shall be passed, without the assent of two- 
thirds of the members present in each House. (Madison Papers, Yol. II. pp. 
1233-34.) 



25 



/^y 



tion had not meddled with this point ; and he did not see any greater necessity for 
bringing it within the policy of the new one. 

Mr. Pinckney ; (said) South Carolina can never receive the plan, if it prohibits 
the Slave Trade. In every proposed extension of the powers of Congress, that 
State has expressly and watchfully excepted that of meddling with the importa- 
tion of negroes. If the States be all left at liberty on this subject, South Carolina 
may, perhaps, by degrees, do of herself what is wished, as Virginia and Maryland 
already have done. Adjourned. 

Wednesday, August 2 2d, 1687. In Convention, Art. 7, Sec. 4, was resumed. 

Mr. Sherman (of Conn.) luas for leaving the clause as it stands. He disapproved 
of the Slave Trade ; yet as the States were now possessed of the right to import 
slaves, as the public good did not require it to be taken from them, and as it was 
expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed scheme of Govern- 
ment, he thought it best to leave the matter as we find it. He observed that the aboli- 
tion of slavery seemed to be going on in the United States, and that the good sense 
of the several States would probably by degrees complete it. He urged on the 
Convention the necessity of dispatching its business. 

Col. Mason; (of Virginia, said,) this infernal traffic originated in the avarice of 
British merchants. The British G-overnment constantly checked the attempts of 
Virginia to put a stop to it. The present question concerns not the importing 
States alone, but the whole Union. The evil of having slaves was experienced 
during the late war. Had slaves been treated as they might have been by the 
enemy, they would have proved dangerous instruments in their hands. But their 
folly dealt by the slaves as it did by the tories. He mentioned the dangerous in- 
surrections of the slaves in Greece and Sicily ; and the instructions given by Crom- 
well to the Commissioners sent to Virginia, to arm the servants and slaves, in case 
other means of obtaining its submission should fail. Maryland and Virginia, he 
said, had already prohibited the importation of slaves expressly. North Carolina 
had done the same, in substance. All this would be in vain, if South Carolina and 
Georgia be at liberty to import. The "Western people are already calling out for 
slaves for their new lands ; and will fill that country with slaves, if they can be 
got through South Carolina and Georgia. Slavery discourages arts and manufac- 
tures. The poor despise labor, when performed by slaves. They prevent the im- 
migration of whites, who really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce 
the most pernicious effects on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty 
tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. As nations cannot be 
rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable 
chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calami- 
ties. He lamented that some of our Eastern brethren had, from a lust of gain, 
embarked in this nefarious traffic. As to the States being in possession of the 
right to import, this was the case With many other rights, now to be properly giv- 
en up. He held it essential, in every point of view, that the General Government 
should have power to prevent the increase of slavery. 

Mr. Ellsworth; (of Conn.) as he had never owned a slave, could not judge of the 
effects of slavery on character. He said, however, that if it was to be considered 
in a moral light, we ought to go further, and free those already in the country. As 
slaves also multiply so fast in Virginia and Maryland, that it is cheaper to raise 

3 



26 

than import them, whilst in the sickly rice swamps, foreign supplies are necessary, 
if we go no further than is urged, we shall be unjust towards South Carolina and 
G-eorgia. Let us not intermeddle. As population increases, poor laborers will be so 
plenty as to render slaves useless. Slavery, in time, will not be a speck in our 
country. Provision is already made in Connecticut for abolishing it. And the abo- 
lition has already taken place in Massachusetts. As to the danger of insurrec- 
tions from foreign influence, that will become a motive to kind treatment of slaves. 

Mr. Pinckney ; (of S. C.) If slavery be wrong, it is justified by the example of 
all the world. He cited the case of Greece, Eome, and other ancient States ; the 
sanction given by France, England, Holland, and other modern States. In all ages, 
one half of mankind have been slaves. If the Southern States were let alone, 
they will probably of themselves stop importations. He would himself, as a citi- 
zen of South Carolina, vote for it. An attempt to take away the right, as proposed, 
will produce serious objections to the Constitution, which he wished to see adopted. 

General Pinckney (of S. C.) declared it to be his firm opinion, that if himself and 
all his colleagues were to sign the Constitution and use their personal influence, it 
would be of no avail towards obtaining the assent of their constituents. South 
Carolina and Georgia cannot do without slaves. As to Virginia, she will gain by 
stopping the importations. Her slaves will rise in value, and she has more than 
she wants. It would be unequal, to require South Carolina and Georgia to confed- 
erate on such unequal terms. He said the Royal assent, before the Revolution, 
had never been refused to South Carolina, as to Yirginia. He contended that the 
importation of slaves would be for the interest of the whole Union. The more 
slaves, the more produce to employ the carrying trade ; the more consumption also ; 
and the more of this, the more revenue for the common treasury. He admitted it 
to be reasonable that slaves should be dutied like other imports ; but should con- 
sider a rejection of the clause as an exclusion of South Carolina from the Union. 

Mr. Baldwin (of Georgia) had conceived national objects alone to be before the 
Convention ; not such as, like the present, were of a local nature. Georgia was 
decided on this point. That State has always hitherto supposed a General Gov- 
ernment to be the pursuit of the central States, who wished to have a vortex for 
everything ; that her distance would preclude her from equal advantage ; and that 
she could not prudently purchase it by yielding national powers. From this it 
might be understood in what light she would view an attempt to abridge one of 
her favorite prerogatives. If left to herself, she may probably put a stop to the 

evil. As one ground for this conjecture, he took notice of the sect of ; which, 

he said, was a respectable class of people, who carried their ethics beyond the 
mere equality of men, extending their humanity to the claims of the whole animal 
creation. 

Mr. Wilson (of Penn.) observed that if South Carolina and Georgia were them- 
selves disposed to get rid of the importation of slaves in a short time, as had been 
suggested, they would never refuse to unite, because the importation might be 
prohibited. As the section now stands, all articles imported are to be taxed, 
slaves alone are exempt. This is in fact a bounty on that article. 

Mr. Gerry (of Mass.) thought that we had nothing to do with the conduct of the 
States as to Slaves, but ought to be careful not to give any sanction to it. 

Mr. Dickinson (of Delaware) considered it as inadmissible, on every principle of 



/&? 



27 



honor and safety, that the importation of slaves should be authorized to the States 
by the Constitution. The true question was, whether the national happiness would 
be promoted or impeded by the importation ; and this question ought to be left to 
the National Government, not to the States particularly interested. If England 
and France permit slavery, slaves are, at the same time, excluded from both these 
kingdoms. Greece and Eome were made unhappy by their slaves. He could not 
believe that the Southern States would refuse to confederate on the account ap- 
prehended; especially as the power was not likely to be immediately exercised by 
the General Government. 

Mr. Williamson (of N. C.) stated the law of North Carolina on the subject, 
to-wit, that it did not directly prohibit the importation of slaves. It imposed 
a duty of £5 on each slave imported from Africa; £10 on each from else- 
where ; and £50 on each from a State licensing manumission. He thought the 
Southern States could not be members of the Union, if the clause should be re- 
jected ; and that it was wrong to force anything down not absolutely necessary, 
and which any State must disagree to. 

Mr. King (of Mass.) thought the subject should be considered in a political light 
only. If two States will not agree to the Constitution, as stated on one side, he 
could affirm with equal belief, on the other, that great and equal opposition would 
be experienced from the other States. He remarked on gie exemption of slaves 
from duty, whilst every other import was subjected to it, as an inequality that 
could not fail to strike the commercial sagacity of the Northern and Middle States. 

Mr. Langdon (of N. H.) was strenuous for giving the power to the General Gov- 
ernment. He could not, with a good conscience, leave it with the States, who 
could then go on with the traffic, without being restrained by the opinions here 
given, that they will themselves cease to import slaves. 

General Pinckney (of S. C.) thought himself bound to declare candidly, that he 
did not think South Carolina would stop her importation of slaves, in any short 
time ; but only stop them occasionally, as she now does. He moved to commit the 
clause, that slaves might be made liable to an equal tax with other imports; which, 
he thought right, and which would remove one difficulty that had been started. 

Mr. Rutledge ; (of S. C.) If the Convention thinks that North Carolina, South Car- 
olina, and Georgia, will ever agree to the plan, unless their right to import slaves 
be untouched, the expectation is vain. The people of those States will never be 
such fools as to give up so important an interest. He was strenuous against 
striking out the section, and seconded the motion of General Pinckney for a com- 
mitment. 

Mr. Gouverneur Morris (of Penn.) wished the whole subject to be committed, 
including the clauses relating to taxes on exports, and to a Navigation Act. These 
things may form a bargain among the Northern and Southern States. 

Mr. Butler of (S. C.) declared, that he would never agree to the power of taxing- 
exports. 

Mr. Sherman (of Conn.) said it was better to let the Southern States import slaves, 
than to part with them, if they made that a sine qua non. He was opposed to a tax 
on slaves imported, as making the matter worse, because it implied they were 
property. He acknowledged that if the power of prohibiting the importation should 
be given to the General Government, that it would be exercised. He thought it 
would be its duty to exercise the power. 



28 

Mr. Read (of Del.) was for the commitment, provided the clause concerning taxes 
on exports should also be committed. 

Mr. Sherman (of Conn.) observed that that clause had been agreed to, and there- 
fore could not be committed. 

Mr. Randolph (of Va.) was for committing, in order that some middle ground 
might, if possible, be found. He could never agree to the clause as it stands. He 
would sooner risk the Constitution. He dwelt on the dilemma to which the Conven- 
tion was exposed. By agreeing to the clause, it would revolt the Quakers, the 
Methodists, and many others in the States having no slaves. On the other hand, 
two States might be lost to the Union. Let us ? then, he said, try the chance of a 
commitment. 

On the question for committiug the remaining part of sections 4 and 5, of Article 
?, — Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
Georgia, aye — "7 ; New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, no — 3 ; Massachu- 
setts absent. 

Mr. Pickney (of S. C.) and Mr. Langdon (of N. H.) moved to commit Section 6, 
as to a Navigation Act, by two-thirds of each House. 

Mr. Gorham (of Mass.) did not see the propriety of it. Is it meant to require a 
greater proportion of votes ? He desired it to be remembered that the Eastern 
States had no motive to union but a commercial one. They were able to protect 
themselves. They were not afraid of external danger, and did not need the aid of 
the Southern States. 

Mr. Wilson (of Penn.) wished for a commitment, in order to reduce the propor- 
tion of votes required. 

Mr. Ellsworth (of Conn.) was for taking the plan as it is. This widening of 
opinions had a threatening aspect. If we do not agree on this middle and mode- 
rate ground, he was afraid we should lose two States, with such others as may be 
disposed to stand aloof; should fly into a variety of shapes and directions, and, 
most probably, into several confederations ; and not without bloodshed. 

On the question for committing Section 6, as to a Navigation Act, to a member 
from each State, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary- 
land, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina Georgia, aye, — 9. Connecticut, 
New Jersey, no, — 2. 

The Committee were Messrs. Langdon, King, Johnson, Livingston, Clymer, Dick- 
inson, L. Martin, Madison, Williamson, C. C. Pinckney, Baldwin. 

To this Committee were referred, also, the two clauses above mentioned of the 
fourth and fifth Sections of Article VII. 

Friday, Aug. 24. In Convention, Gouverneur Livingston, from the Committee 
of eleven, to whom were referred the two remaining clauses of the 4th Section, 
and the 5th and 6th Sections of the 7th Article, delivered in the following Report : 

" Strike out so much of the 4th Section as was referred to the Committee, and 
insert The migration or importation of such persons as the several States now existing 
shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Legislature, prior to the year 
1800 ; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such migration or importation, at a 
rate not exceeding the average of the duties laid on imports.f 

* Madison papers, Vol. III. pp. 1388-97. f IUd - YoL IIL P- 1415 ' 



29 

The 5th Section to remain as in the Report. 

The 6th Section to be stricken out. [This Section required that no Navigation 
Act should be passed, without the assent of two-thirds of the members of each 
House.]* 

Saturday, Aug. 25th. The Report of the Committee of Eleven being taken up, 
General Pickney (of S. C.) moved to strike out the words "the year eighteen hundred" 
as the year limiting the importation of slaves, and to insert the words, "the year eigh- 
teen hundred and eight. 

Mr. Gorham (of Mass.) seconded the motion. 

Mr. Madison ; (of Ya ) Twenty years will produce all the mischief that can be 
apprehended from the liberty to import slaves. So long a term will be more dishon- 
orable to the American character, than to say nothing about it in the Constitution. 

On the motion, which passed in the affirmative, — New Hampshire, Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, aye — T ; 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, no — 4. 

Mr. Gouverneur Morris (of Penn.) was for making the clause read at once, "the 
importation of slaves into North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, shall not 
be prohibited, &c." This he said would be most fair, and would avoid the ambi- 
guity by which, under the power with regard to Naturalization, the liberty reserved 
to the States might be defeated. He wished it to be known, also, that this part of 
the Constitution was a compliance with those States. If the change of language, 
however, should be objected to, by the members from those States, he should not 
urge it. 

Colonel Mason (of Ya.) was not against using the term " Slaves," but against 
naming North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, lest it should give offence to ■ 
the people of those States. 

Mr. Sherman (of Conn.) liked a description better than the terms proposed, 
which had been declined by the old Congress, and were not pleasing to some 
people. 

Mr. Clymer (of Penn.) concurred with Mr. Sherman. 

Mr. Williamson (of N. C.) said, that both in opinion and practice he was against 
slavery ; but thought it more in favor of humanity, from a view of all circum- 
stances, to let in South Carolina and Georgia on those terms, than to exclude them 
from the Union. 

Mr. Gouverneur Morris (of Penn.) withdrew his motion. 

Mr. Dickinson (of Del.) wished the clause to be confined to the States which had 
not themselves prohibited the importation of slaves; and for that purpose moved to 
amend the clause, so as to read: — "The importation of slaves into such of the 
States as shall permit the same, shall not be prohibited by the Legislature of the 
United States, until the year 1808 ;" which was disagreed to, nem con. 

The first part of the Report was then agreed to, amended as follows ; " The mi- 
gration or importation of such persons as the several States now existing shall 
think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Legislature prior to the year 
1808." — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Georgia, aye — 1 ; New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, 
no — 4.f 

* Madison Papers, Vol. III. p. 1415. f Ibid. Vol. III. pp. 142T-29. 

3* 



30 

[On "Wednesday, Aug. 29th, 178*7, the Report of the Committee of Eleven on 
striking out the clause, Art. 7, Sec. 6, requiring two-thirds of both Houses to pass 
a Navigation Act, came up in Convention.] 

General Pinckney (of S. C.) said it was the true interest of the Southern States 
to have no regulation of commerce ; but, considering the loss brought upon the 
commerce of the Eastern States by the Revolution, their liberal conduct toward 
the views of South Carolina, and the interest the weak Southern States had in be- 
ing united with the strong Eastern States, he thought it proper that no fetters 
should be imposed on the power of making commercial regulations ; and that his 
constituents, though prejudiced against the Eastern States, would be reconciled to 
this liberality. [Mr. Madison says in a note, that by " the liberal conduct of the 
Eastern States," Gen. Pinckney " meant, the permission to import slaves. An un- 
derstanding on the two subjects of Navigation and Slavery had taken place be- 
tween those parts of the Union, which explains the vote on the motion depending, 
as well as the language of General Pinckney and others." The motion to strike 
out the clause requiring a two-thirds vote to pass a Navigation Act was, after de- 
bate, agreed to, unanimously.*] 

But, this is not all. Not only was the proposition to extend 
the Slave Trade during twenty years, instead of twelve years, 
seconded in this Federal Convention by a Delegate from New 
England j and voted for by all the Delegates from the New Eng- 
land States, but New England took a most prominent part in the 
Slave Trade itself, during the period when that trade was thus 
continued. The ports of South Carolina having been closed for 
many years to the importation of slaves, were opened by the 
State to that trade, under the protection of Congress, for four 
years, from Jan. 1, 1804, to Dec. 31, 1807. In the year 1820, on 
the admission of Missouri to the Union, a violent opposition 
to its admission was made on the part of the Abolitionists in 
both Houses of Congress ; and, among others, by Hon. Mr. 
DeWolf, U, S. Senator from Ehode Island ; who had been 
elected to that body by the Abolition party. During the dis- 
cussion, the Hon. Mr. Smith, U. S. Senator from South Caro- 
lina, delivered an address, in which he presented the statistics 
which we give below. It was made to appear, that this same 
Hon. Mr. DeWolf, the Abolition U. S. Senator from Ehode 
Island, had been himself the owner of ten of the slave ships 
and their Cargoes, which had been engaged in the Slave Trade 
during the four years of its re-opening. The extent to which 
New England participated in the Slave Trade, will appear, 

* Madison Papers, Vol. III. pp. 1451-6 



/6~/j 



31 



though only in part, by the facts cited by the Hon. Mr. Smith, 
as follows :— 



On the Bill for the admission of Missouri. Dec. 8. 



1820, the 

Hon. Mr. Smith, in the United States Senate, in the course of 
his speech, said as follows : — 

"However, hearing, late in the Summer, that the storm was gathering to the 
North, and that the admission of Missouri into the Union would be opposed on ac- 
count of Slavery, or something springing from that source, he wrote to a friend in 
Charleston, to apply to the Custom House officer, for a full statement of all the 
Ships engaged in that Trade during the four years, together with their Owners, 
Consignees, their places of residence. Country, Nation to which they belonged, &c, 
that he might be able to show the public who were engaged in it. In answer to 
his request, he had received from the Custom House books, from the hands of the 
Collector, the following authentic Documents. He would present to the Senate, in 
the first place, the documents which contained the years of arrival, the Names of 
the Yessels, the place to which the Yessel belonged, the Names of the Proprietors, 
the Names of the Consignees, their Country, and to where they belonged." 

[Explanation.— B.British; F.French; N. E. New England ; R. I. Rhode Island.] 
Yessels Names — Proprietobs — Of what Country. 
1804. 

E. Alexander, Cha'ston; W. Broadfoot; G. B. 
Francis, Charleston ; J. Potter ; G-. B. 



N. 



Aurora, Cha'ston, A ; S. E. Turner 

Ann, B.; W. McCleod; Scotland. 

Easter, B. ; Boyd ; 

Brilliant, B. ; Bixby ; P. I. 

Armed Neutrality. Charleston; Napier. 

Smith & Co. ; G. B. 
Argo, R. I. ; James Miller ; Ireland. 
Thomas, B. ; James & Price ; G-. B. 
Horizon, Cha'ston ; A. & J. McClure"; Gr. B. 
Harriot, F. ; James Broadfoot ; Gr. B. 
Eliza, P. I. ; James Millar ; G. B. 



Christopher, B. ; Wm. Boyd; Gr. B. 
Favorite, R. I.; James Millar; Gr. B. 
McLespine, B. ; Gibson & Broadfoot; G. B. 
Susanna, Charleston; S. E. Turner: N. E. 
Active, B.; J. Campbell; G. B. 
Hamilton, B.; W. Boyd; G. B. 
Ruby, Charleston; W. Boyd: G. B. 
Mary, Norfolk ; J. Broadfoot ; G. B. 



1805. 



Perseverance, B. ; Turner & Price ; G. B. 
Kitty, Charleston; G. Parker; Charleston. 
Lupin, B. ; Bixby ; R I. 
Mary Huntley, B. ; W. Boyd; G. B. 
Gov.Wentworth, B. ; Turner & Price; G.B. 
Experiment, B. ; W. Boyd ; G. B. 
Eagle, R. I. ; Gardner & Phillips; R. I. 
Neptune, R. I. ; E. Cook ; R. I. 
Fanny, B. ; Turner & Price ; G. B. 
Thomas, Cha'ston; Turner & Price; G. B. 
Nile, Charleston; Wm Boyd: G. B. 
Recourse. B.; Gibson & Broadfoot ; G.B. 
Isabella, B.; I. S. Allen; G. B. 
Armed Neutralitj', Charleston ; Napier & 

Smith; G. B. 
Susanna, Cha'ston ; J. Duncan & Co. ; G.B. 



Love and Unity, B. ; S. Adams; R. I. 
Manning, B. ; Trenno & Cox; G. B. 
Jack Park. B. ; John Price ; G. B. 
Juliet, R. I.; Phillips & Gardner; R. I. 
Margaret, B. ; W. Boyd; G. B. 
Louisa, R. I. ; Phillips & Gardner ; R. I. 
Ariel, B.; W.Boyd; G. B. 
Estor, B,; W. Boyd; G. B. 
Margaret, B. ; W. Boyd; G. B. 
Hiram, R. I. ; Phillips & Gardner; R. 1. 
Louisiana, B. ; Eddy ; R. I. 
Maria, B. ; Cooper ; G. B. 
Hambleton, B. ; Wm. Boyd; G.B. 
Rambler, R. I. ; E. Sayer ; R. I. 
William, B. ; Turner & Price ; G. B. 



Ariel, B. ; Wm. Boyd ; G. B. 

Mary, B. ; Gibson & Broadfoot; G. B. 

Daphna, Charleston ; W. Boyd ; G. B. 



1806. 

Carrie, B. ; Truno & Cox ; G. B. 
America, B. ; James Broadfoot ; G. B. 
Davis, Charleston; John Davidson; G. B. 



32 



Lydia, Cha'ston ; Everingham ; N. Jersey. 
Dudton, B.; Gibson & Broadfoot; G. B. 
Amazon, B. ; Tunno & Cox ; G. B. 
Fair American, Cha'ston; J.S.Adams; R.L 
Miller, Charleston; J. Queen; Ireland. 
Edward & Edmund; Cooper; G. B. 
Factor, R. I. ; Sherman ; R. I. 
Louisa, R. L; Phillips & Gardner; R. I. 
Commerce, R. I. ; Sesson ; G. B. 
Gustavus, Swede; Spencer Man; Cha'ston. 
Neptune, R. I. ; C. Cook ; R. I. 
Robert, B. ; Gibson & Broadfoot; G. B. 
Polly, R. I. ; Benson, R. I. 
Hiram, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner ; R. I. 
Samuel, B. ; Gilchrist ; New Jersey. 
Love and Unity, B. ; J. S. Adams ; R, I. 
Three Sisters, R. I. ; W. Champlain; R. I. 
Hector, B. ; John Watson; G. B. 
Ruby, Charleston; W. Boyd; G. B. 
Farmer, Charleston ; John Carr ; G. B. 
Maria, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner ; R. I. 
Ceres, B.; Gibson & Broadfoot; G. B. 
Independence, Baltimore ; Churchill ; R. I. 
Hibernia, B.; Pratt; G. B. 
Alert, B. ; ¥m. Boyd ; G. B. 
Agent, R. I. Eddy; R. I. 



Mary, Charleston; W. Boyd; G. B. 

Three Friends, B.; J. Galligan; G. B. 

Fair Eliza, R. I ; J. Metier ; R. I. 

Fox, Charleston ; J. S. Adams ; R. 1. 

Kitty, Charleston; G.Parker; Charleston. 

Hope, R. L; W. Lyon; R. I. 

Nantasket, Charleston ; Boohorod; G. B. 

John Watson, B. ; Tunno & Price ; G. B. 

Hope, Charleston; Wm. McCormic, Ire- 
land. 

Governor Dodsworth, B. ; W. Boyd ; G.B. 

Mary Ann, B. ; J. Kennedy; G. B. 

Diana, B. ; P. Mooney; G. B. 

Davenport, B. ; J. Everingham; N.Jersey. 

Corydon, B. ; W. Boyd; G. B. 

Kate, B.; Watson & Co.; G. B. 

Mercury, Charleston; W. Kelly; G. B. 

Union, B ; W. Royd; G. B. 

Washington, R. I. ; D. McKedvey : G. B. 

Louisa, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner, R. I. 

Nicholson, B.; W. C. Tarmed; G. B. 

Edward and Edmund, Charleston ; J. Cal- 
ligan ; G. B. 

Mercury, B. ; J. Watson & Co. ; G. B. 

Little Ann, R. I.; Christian; Charleston, 

Margaret, B. ; T. Romlinson ; G. B. 



1807. 



Katy, Charleston; T. Cass'n; G. B. 

James, A.; Holmes; G. B. 

Eliza, Charleston; Christian & DeWolf; 

R. I. 
Cleopatra, Charleston ; W. Boyd ; G. B. 
Union, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner ; R. I. 
Tartar, B. ; G Hambleton; G. B. 
Maria, B. ; J. Cooper ; G. B. 
James, Baltimore ; N. Ingraham ; Mass. 
Mary, B. ; J. S. Adams; R. I. 
Aspinal, B. ; Hamilton & Co. ; G. B. 
James, R. I. ; C. Christian ; Charleston. 
Norfolk, Charleston; Cushman; Ireland. 
Fourth of July, B. ; G. Parker ; Cha'ston. 
D udder, B. ; Gibson & Broadfoot ; G. B. 
Habit. F. ; Delan & Co. ; France. 
Agent, R. I.; T. Eddy; R. I. 
Eliza, Charleston ; T. Ogin ; G. B. 
Ann, B. ; Tunno & Cox; G. B. 
Ellis, B.; James & Price ; G. B. 
Andromache, R. I. ; Drawn ; R. I. 
Gov. Ciairborn, R. I. ; T. Depau; France. 
Hiram, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner ; R. I. 
Simiramis, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner; R.I. 
Neptune, R. I.; C. Cook; R. I. 
Nancy, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner; R. I. 
Minerva, Charleston; T. Depau; France. 
Columbia, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner; R. I. 
Factor, R. I.; C. Cook; R. I. 
Lavinia; Christian & DeWolf ; R.I. 
Leander, Charleston ; T. Vincent ; R. I. 
Daphney, Charleston; W.Broadfoot; G.B. 
Africa, B.; W.Boyd; G. B. 
Three Friends, B.: J. Callgan; G. B. 



Eliza, R. I. ; J. Christian & DeWolf; R. I. 

Lark, R. I.; W. Bradford; R. I. 

Alfred, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner ; R. I. 

Louise, Charleston ; J. Duncan ; G. B. 

Hiram, R. I. ; Norris; R. I. 

Concord, R. I. ; Christian & DeWolf; R. I. 

Friendship, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner ; 
R.I. 

Flora, R. I.; DeWolf; R. I. 

Ann and Harriet, R. I. ; Philips & Gard- 
ner ; R. I. 

Monticello, R. L; DeWolf; R. I. 

Amazon, B. ; Bennett ; G. B. 

Baltimore, R. I. ; Church ; R. I. 

Juliet, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner ; R. I. 

Miriam, B. ; Depeau, France. 

Heron, Connecticut ; C. Fitzsimmons ; Ire- 
land. 

Ruby, Charleston; W. Bovd; G. B. 

Three Sisters, R. I. ; De Wolf; R. I. 

Betsey and Sally, R. I. ; DeWolf; R. I, 

Armed Neutrality, Charleston; Boyd; 
G.B. 

Anna, Neutrality, Charleston ; Depau ; 
France. 

John B. Charleston; Tunno & Price; 
France. 

Nantasket, Cha'ston; Bousroyel; France. 

George Clinton, Britain; Delai & Clem- 
ent; France. 

Eagle, R. I.; DeWolf; R. I. 

Port Mary, Charleston ; W. Boyd; Britain. 

Eliza, Charleston ; Christy ; Charleston. 

Mary, R. I.; Philips & Gardner; R. I. 



M 



33 



Eagle, R. I.; Philips & Gardner; R. I. 

Actor, Charleston ; P. Kennedy ; Ireland. 

Hanna Bartlett, Charleston; Philips & 
Gardner; R. I. 

Mary, Charleston; J. Eglistin; R. I. 

Edward and Edmund, Charleston; Hil- 
ton ; R. I. 

Charleston, Charleston ; Bailey & Wailer ; 
Britain. 

Experience, Boston; Fisher; R. I. 

Rambler, R. I. ; Philips & Gardner ; R. I. 

Eliza, B.; J. B. Cotton; R. I. 

Cleopatra, Charleston; W. Floyd; Britain. 

Hope, R. I. ; DeWolf ; R. I 

Charlotte. R. I. ; DeWolf ; R. I. 

Albert, Charleston; W. Timmon; S. C. 

Commerce, R. I. ; W. Lyon ; R. I. 

Hope, Charleston ; N. Ingram ; Mass. 

Wealthy Ann; DeWolf; R.I. 

Columbia, R. t; Philips & Gardner; R. I. 



Agenora, R. R.; De Wolf; R. I. 
Mercury, B. ; M.Kelly; Ireland. 
Yenus, Charleston ; Preble ; R. I. 
Agent, Charleston; Depau; French. 
General Clairborne, do.; Depau; French. 
James, R. I. ; DeWolf; R. I. 
Resolution, Charleston; J. S. Adams; 

Britain. 
William and Mary, Charleston ; H. Kerr ; 

Britain. 
Caroline, F. ; Synagal; French. 
Polly, Charleston ; J. Stoney ; Charleston. 
Jupiter, Norfolk ; J. Willick : Britain. 
Heart of Oak, Baltimore ; J. S. Adams ; 

R.I. 
Horizon, B. ; J. S. Adams ; R. I. 
Mary Ann, Charleston ; A. S. Miller ; R. I. 
Mary Ann, Baltimore ; Dallas ; R. I. 
Rio, Charleston; O'Harra; Charleston. 
Sally, B. ; C. Graves ; Charleston. 



Mr. Smith then read the recapitulation, in the following 
words and figures : — 

Recapitulation of the African trade, and by what nation supported, from Jan- 
uary 1st, 1804, to December 31st, 1807. 

VESSELS BELONGING- TO 

Connecticut, 1 

i Swede, __1 



British, „_ _ ._. 10 

French, _._ _ -.3 



Charleston, _ 61 

Rhode Island, 59 I 

Baltimore, __ 41 

Boston, __ 1] 

Norfolk, - 2 

Consignees, natives of Charleston, _ 13 

Consignees, natives of Rhode Island, 88 

Consignees, natives of Britain, 91 

Consignees of France, 10 

Total, .202 

This paper, Sir, contains the whole number of slaves imported, and the particular 
number imported by each foreign nation, and each of the United States. It is in 
the following words and figures : 

Slaves imported at Charleston, from the 1st of Jan., 1804, to 31st December, 
1807, and by what" nation. 

British, ._ 19,949 

French, 1,078 



In American Yessels. 



•21,027 



Charleston, S. C 7,723 

Of this number there were, belong- 
ing to foreigners, 5,717 

Leaving, imported by merchants and 

planters of Cha'ston and vicinity, _ 2, 00G 
Bristol, Rhode Island, _._ 3, 9 14" * 

Newport, _ 3,488 \. 7,958 

Providence, 556 



Baltimore, 750 

Savannah, _ 300 

Norfolk, 287 

Warren, 280 

Hartford, _ 250 

Boston, _ _ 200 

Philadelphia, _200 

New Orleans, ._ .100 



• 18,048 



39,075 



34 

There, Sir, ends the black catalogue. It would show to the Senate, that those 
people who most deprecate the evils of Slavery and traffic in human flesh, when a 
profitable market can be found, can sell human flesh with as easy a conscience as 
they sell other articles. The whole number imported by the merchants and plant- 
ers of Charleston and its vicinity, were only two thousand and six. Nor were the 
slaves imported by the foreigners, and other American vessels and owners, sold to 
the Carolinians, only in a small part. They were sold to the people of the Western 
States, Georgia, New Orleans, and a considerable quantity were sent to the West 
Indies, especially when the market became dull in Carolina." 

This, then, is the record. The extreme North having, in 
way of bargain, united with the extreme South, by formal ac- 
tion, and by a unanimous vote, in prolonging the Slave Trade, 
against the remonstrances of the more moderate men of the 
Southern and Middle States ; (Mr. Sherman and Mr. Ells- 
worth, of Connecticut, as we have seen above, were in favor of 
not interfering with the Slave Trade at all, but leaving it to 
the States themselves) and having, subsequently, in the per- 
sons of her citizens, and for the lust of gain, embarked in the 
Slave Trade, and as long as that trade was tolerated, forced 
thousands of Africans into bondage, and so, as well as by the 
Navigation Acts, amassed the wealth which now enriches the 
descendants of those men ; we say, that whoever else may 
meddle with Slavery in the Slave States, she, of all others, 
is called upon to let it alone. By the letter of the Constitu- 
tion, to which her sons are bound by the solemnity of an oath, 
she has no right to touch it. Whatever the sympathies and 
sentiments of her people at the present day may be in respect 
to Slavery, whatever the actual effect of this War is, and will 
be, upon the institution itself, and of this there is no longer 
any doubt, yet interference, as an end, with the institution, 
does not belong to her. 

It is becoming certain that the conservative element of the 
country has a great work to do in the final settlement of our 
national troubles. There is such an element. It exists in the 
North and the South, the East and the West. It will prove, 
when the fury and rage of War are spent, a controlling ele- 
ment. The far-seeing wisdom, the lofty patriotism, the Christ- 
ian philanthropy of Washington, Madison, and Franklin, and 
the other great Fathers of the Eepublic, are not yet dead and 
perished out of the land. Their great names still stand inscri- 



/6 : 

35 

bed, clear and luminous, on the work which, amid anxiety, and 
obloquy, and self-sacrifice, and prayers, they wrought out. And 
if, from their lofty heights, their spirits now look down upon 
the threatened wreck and ruin of it all, in what words would 
they now address us ! To what heroic deeds would they now 
summon us ! Is it so, that we are no more to gather around 
their sacred shrines, save wiih the mantle of shame upon our 
cheeks, as we see their hallowed dust trampled by Vandal feet ? 
Is it so, that the Tomb of Washington has, henceforth, lost 
its talismanic power ? Surely the men now upon the stage, to 
whom the solution of our difficulties will be entrusted, are not 
purer, nor nobler, nor wiser Statesmen than they. The same 
great questions which now distract the public councils and 
inflame the public mind, were canvassed then, in all their 
length and breadth ; and the solemn words of warning which 
G-eorge Washington then uttered, should be reechoed in the 
public ear now. 

Christian Statesmen, who are not afraid nor ashamed to 
follow the footsteps of these noble men, will not consent, that 
the extreme North and the extreme South shall again unite to 
sever the Union, and plunge the whole nation into destruction, 
by a policy the very reverse of that which, in the beginning, 
bound them together ; a policy, which philanthropy, and pat- 
riotism, and Christianity, all unite in declaring to be fraught 
with wretchedness and ruin. There are, we know, multitudes 
of noble men in both extreme sections of this country, who 
are already looking out for such manifestation of wisdom, 
moderation, and true philanthropy. They shall not always, 
iior long look in vain. Meanwhile, let the prayers of Christ- 
ians still go up to the Grod of Heaven unceasingly, that He 
will assuage the violent storm of passion ; that He will cause 
the people to learn Kighteousness ; and that He will, once 
more, restore Peace to our now distracted Nation. 

In conclusion ; we repeat, let the Clergy devote themselves 
to that Kingdom which is not of this world. Its vows are upon 
them. Let them minister Christ's Word and Sacraments. It 
is a work which an Archangel might desire. The " Powers 
that be," have a right to their loyal obedience, and to their 
prayers. Beyond this, they are to " let the dead bury their 



36 

dead/' Let them leave matters of State to Statesmen. Let 
them be content that the part of clerical harlequins be played 
by those who love the praise of men, more than the praise of 
God. Let them dare endure the frowns of scheming; dema- 
gogues, whose tools they will not stoop to become. Let the 
Priests of the Lord ; in their own sphere in the Church, train 
up men thoroughly imbued with the principles of the Law of 
G-od in Christ ; men who are to fill all the various posts of 
trust in Society and the State, and they will have subserved 
their country's highest good, far more effectually than by 
trailing their garments in the mire of political strife. 

As Church Reviewers, charged with the free discussion of 
the great questions of the age and times, we have not dared 
to keep silent, when such momentous interests are, as now, 
imperiled. Yet it is the moral aspect of this question alone, 
that has occupied our attention. Up to the very beginning of 
the War, the Protestant Episcopal Church was regarded as 
almost the only conservative element in the country. Her love 
of order, her reverence for authority, her instinctive recognition 
of the principle of the brotherhood of man ; of man, not living 
isolated and alone, but as a social being ; her Mission, as 
the Ministration of Life and Preacher of Bighteousness, and 
so prompting to all true and genuine Eeform ; — all this 
should clothe the Church with commanding dignity and 
power. A great and glorious work is hers, if she has faith to be 
true to herself and to her great Head. In pointing to what 
we believe to be the real causes of our terrible calamities, and 
their remedy, and to the imminent dangers which now threaten 
to whelm our nation in one common ruin, we have uttered 
our honest convictions. They who take counsel only of their 
own hatred of Grod, and of His Son, and of His Church, of 
their own ambition, avarice, and self-conceit, are not to be ap- 
proached with reasons such as these which have been urged. 
Yet, if madness does not rule the hour, if there is such a thing 
left as a principle of right, justice and honor, if the Divine 
Spirit of love, peace, forgiveness, forbearance, and reconcilia- 
tion, has any hold on the public mind, the views which we have 
presented will not fail of consideration. 



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